High and Noble Youngsters
by Rainingcellos
Summary: Jyn was abandoned by Saw at 11 and the Rebellion starts to look for her at 13. Watch her as an attitude and rage 13 year old and Cassian as an angsty 17 year old.
1. Escape from Wobani

Ever since she had been, for all intents and purposes orphaned at age five, she knew she was a loner. Even when part of Saw's gang, which she hadn't been part of for two years. Saw had left her in a bunker with a blaster and orders not to come out at age eleven, when the backwater planet they had been operating had started considering her a woman and the others in the squad(terrorist group, really, just one with really good intentions she no longer held) either wanted her to pay for her father's crimes or they viewed her as a woman and a woman's job was to cook and be attentive.

She knew that Saw had done it for her own good. She had been considering running away as one persistent squad member became increasingly hard to fend off without physical violence that drew a lot of attention. Jyn knew that if she had run away Saw would have tracked her down and executed her for deserting and stealing a weapon, and going weaponless was not an option. Being abandoned by Saw was as lucky as having been found by him six years previous.

Since then she had stayed mostly out of trouble. Some run-ins with local law enforcement but the Empire didn't care. Jyn kept her head down as Tanith Ponta. Actually _some run-ins_ was an understatement but between bribes and lying she got out of most of her trouble.

Unfortunately she must have made some enemies because falsified warrants for her under all of her aliases were all over all her typical planets. The falsified parts made her laugh. They knew her aliases but not her crimes. Someone was good, but not good enough and had a grudge, but not a big enough one because they evidently weren't trying to hard as this had been going on for five months. She just hunkered down on Wobani, figuring the high Imperial occupation would dissuade. She knew if the Imperials had wanted her they would have found her. If they wanted Jyn Erso they would never be able to find her. She had destroyed any trace of her existence for the most part. Krennic still knew but staging an assassination was a little obvious and political so she elected to keep her head down.

She was careful with her money and knew quite a few tricks since she had been accountant to Saw. Even rebellious terrorist groups needed accountants. Most of her real crime was financial and computer based. Harder to get caught. She figured getting caught meant death so as long as she could minimize risk she would.

Today was her monthly ration getting day. She was staying in the inn of a conveniently kind and not noisy grandmotherly woman. As long as she had the rent and food money monthly and chipped in for repairs and payed for her own electricity because she used a lot, the grandmother didn't complain. Except for when she walked, because evidently that was stomping.

Jyn suited up in her going outside clothes, complete with a large blaster, two small hidden blasters, and three hidden vibroblades, plus other armaments. Anything left in the room could get stolen, after all.

She wandered down the stairs and past the window for the first time in a month, taking the opportunity to stretch her legs. She trained every day, but stairs were different from what she could do in her tiny apartment and she appreciated the variety while silently acknowledging how pathetic her existence was at the moment. She had almost found where the false warrants were coming from though and hopefully would not make this small pilgrimage again. She wanted off this sandy planet. She promised herself to find a nice planet like Naboo or Alderaan next time.

She knocked on the door to the grandmother's apartment. The door slid open and she entered like the previous five months, money in hand for a quick exchange.

"Hello Yolanda. I'll leave the money on the counter for you to count," She said, walking over to the counter to deposit the money and looking for the crate of rations.

She found a straight-faced young man holding a blaster to a tied-up Yolanda instead. Her reactions were fast, but not fast enough to save Yolanda. That is, if Yolanda was worth saving. She raised an eyebrow at the intruder.

The intruder said nothing either. His eyes darted about her, sizing up her threat. She purposely made herself seem smaller and more innocent. Which was a joke because she had killed with the worst of them.

She kept standing there. It didn't matter to her how long they stood there. She had all the time in the world. She could see him getting antsy. This was apparently not how this robbery, kidnapping of Yolanda or kidnapping of her was supposed to go. Could be a murder as well.

The young gentleman of the criminal persuasion subtly pursed his lips like he was about to say something. He wanted her to break first and give him the advantage but Jyn was not going to make things that convenient for him.

She started to whistle.

He started, tensed and almost discharged the blaster into Yolanda.

"Do not startle me like that if you want her to live!" he growled.

"Maybe I don't care." Jyn said. She did care, but maybe he could be talked out of it.

"You care!" he again growled, a scowl settling in. He looked out of place among Yolanda's overenthusiastic doily decorating scheme.

"I don't." She replied, leaning against the counter.

"Fine. I'll kill her." He said calmly, scowling even more as he moved the blaster to Yolanda's temple.

Jyn rolled her eyes. Evidently he was a little erratic.

"What do you want?" she enquired.

Almost breathing a sigh of relief, he lowered the blaster a little. Yolanda glared at Jyn.

"You will come with me," he stated.

"No," she countered, as if they were negotiating.

He grimaced and raised the blaster again.

"Fine." Jyn rolled her eyes again.

He lowered the blaster.

"Come here, let me restrain you." he said.

"Didn't agree to that. And you've already threatened to shoot her so many times. You need some other leverage." She figured she could shake him. She didn't want the inevitable warrant that would come if Yolanda was murdered, and Yolanda was a gem to boot.

"You know what? Fine. Just come with me," he said.

"Ok," she replied.

They stood there, him with blaster half raised, her leaning against Yolanda's counter.

"Get going!" he said, shooing her out of the room.

"Where?" She said, annoyance spreading through all her features, "You're really bungling this whole kidnapping thing."

"Out the front door. Wait there-"

She shrugged and walked out the door, not listening to any further instructions he was trying to impart. He was making the whole escaping thing really easy.

She walked to the entrance.

A blaster shot echoed behind her.

She took off at a run towards the shippark. Yolanda would no longer be needing her ship evidently.

Halfway through the short stretch a metal arm rammed into her stomach.

"Congratulations! You are being recruited!" an imperial droid proudly announced.

She tried to squirm out of his hold.

"Please do not resist," the droid drawled.

A/N: Only saw movie once and have not fact checked. Bear with me. AU Jyn is 13, so Cassian is 17 or 16 depending on how birthdays fall and where in the year they are. Maybe I'll figure it out later. Updated to bring a little closer to the movies and fix stuff.


	2. Ceiling Staring

She woke up in Yolanda's speeder with a headache.

The imperial droid and kidnapper were busy flying the ship and weren't watching her. She wondered where they were going as she looked around the ship. That her kidnappers had stolen after killing Yolanda.

They had an imperial droid, but he didn't look like any sort of imperial, he was too young and not in uniform. The Empire had a tendency of blasting its way in, not a subtle kidnapping. She had enough colleagues disappear in that manner to know how the Empire functioned.

She tried to sit up, but her hands were tied behind her back. She maneuvered quietly so that her hand could reach one of her hidden weapons, her multiweapon. Commonly used by the rebellion, she had picked one off a dead rebel after a battle she had been a little too close for comfort to when she was still with saw. It was superior to a vibroblade because it didn't hum. She kept it in the hidden pocket on the inside of her thigh because anywhere else could be pickpocketed and she tried not to use it because it might accidentally tie her allegiance to the rebels.. it was in a hard place to reach subtly normally but she was glad about the paranoia that she had learned over the years. She jimmied the multiweapon in the gap between her stun cuffs so the link broke apart. Shoddy stun cuffs also pointed to her kidnappers not being imperials. She figured they might be the same people that had put out the warrants in the first place.

Her hands were now free and she set to work on her ankles, letting both sets of cuffs drop softly on the ground. She didn't want to attack with only her multitool, so she looked around for another weapon. While they were incompetent enough to not search her thoroughly and use shoddy cuffs, they did hide the weapons they confiscated from her.

Multitool it was then. She crept forward, keeping low. It was hard to not be in the peripheral vision of either.

She must have made a sound or a movement in the imperial droid's peripheral sensors, because he turned.

"I told you she had a 81.698 percent chance of having another weapon," he informed his human companion.

"You took all my stuff!" Jyn protested, waving her multiweapon around. The human's face became stony when he saw that.

"I also told you there was a 98.74 percent chance that she would be upset," the droid again helpfully reminded the young man.

Jyn stomped her foot.

"Cassian, what are you going to do? She has a 51.68 percent chance of assaulting you with it," the droid said, continuing to ignore her.

She turned to look at her kidnapper, apparently named Cassian. He did not look like he was having fun and she thought he deserved it. His eyebrow twitched and she saw, too late and without time to duck, the droid's arm coming at her head.

The next time she awoke, she was in some sort of medbay with no restraints but a raging headache. She tried to get up but felt groggy. She decided it didn't matter who had captured her, she was going to lie there. The facilities were too shoddy for the Empire but too nice for a standard smuggling ring. They had lots of proper medical equipment she had not seen in a long time but it all seemed outdated from her little knowledge of medical technology. She figured she would find out the owners of the facility soon enough.

A few minutes later a medic came in.

"Hi, how are you feeling?" the medic asked.

"Like I have a concussion." she said, rolling her eyes.

"You do have a concussion, but you'll be alright in no time. Nothing too severe on the brain scan the medical droid did. You'll be going for a meeting soon!" the bubbly medic informed her.

"Go away," Jyn complained. The medic did so, seeing no need to continue talking to a crabby but otherwise fine patient.

She laid down and stared at the ceiling. No wonder the rebels had trouble recruiting members if this was how they did it.

Eventually, another rebel came in bearing food. She sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed, the headache had abated enough. She snatched the tray and placed it on her lap. Jyn hadn't eaten in awhile and figured if they had gone through enough trouble to get her and they wouldn't poison her in the medical wing.

She ate methodically, as she had nothing else to do. She finished and set the tray down on the table besides her bed and laid down for another good round of ceiling staring. She was too far in the base and didn't have any of her confiscated possessions and to boot, was not on a time crunch. She would leave escaping for later.

She, in the midst of the highly diverting ceiling staring felt someone watching her. She fake stretched to peer through the gap in the curtains surrounding her bed. She saw a flash of movement. Someone had been watching her watch the ceiling. Jyn found this highly amusing and giggled.

A third rebel came in, right during the height of the giggle fit. The stern woman looked confused but continued on with her duties.

"Miss Erso, the medic said you were feeling better. Your presence has been requested in a meeting. If you will follow me?" the rebel addressed Jyn.

"Sure," Miss Erso said, getting out of bed with a spring in her step.

The rebel must have been told about her previous record of compliance but quickly schooled her surprised expression back to a stern one. She turned and beckoned Jyn to follow her through the corridors to the cavernous meeting room.

A lot of old rebel looking people were gathered around a glowing table with a spot in the circle. Jyn smiled at them. The cheerful match-girl act usually worked just fine.

"Hello Jyn, may I call you Jyn? We're very happy you agreed to join the cause," a middle aged woman with short hair said.

"Yes. You may call me Jyn. And do you have a name besides those kriffing people who knocked me out twice?" Jyn smiled sweetly.

"I'm sure Captain Andor had a good reason for using the methods he did," the fish man said calmly.

Jyn turned around and wander out of the room. Evidently rebellions do not deal with rebellious teenagers often.

They began to scramble, and Mon Mothma walked out of the room to retrieve Jyn and start this procedure over again.

A/n:This is probably the only thing not in the movie that will be here. Tried it and didn't really like this whole thing. I just wanted some time with teenager Jyn before the whole plot of the movie happens. Should be picking up soon in action.


End file.
